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Welcome to the Crazy Love Podcast. When

0:07

you look

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at heroes of the faith,

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do you ever think there's no way you

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could ever be like them? Or

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look at those who've fallen away and

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think you've got no chance of making it? In

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today's episode, Francis Chan takes

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all of our excuses to task and

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exhorts us to fix our eyes

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on our ultimate example in

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Jesus. Just

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love this. I

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love gathering with people who love

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him, know him, and just, it's

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not a show. Just

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want to come here, look him in the eyes, and

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tell him how great he is. The

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verse today, just fix your eyes

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on Jesus, the

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author and perfecter of our faith. Life

1:00

is so good when we fix

1:02

our eyes on him. Gathering

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with the church is so good

1:08

when we all fix our eyes

1:11

on him.

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I was blessed

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this morning by a couple of you that told

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me how you applied

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last week's message and

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you just, all week long, were

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just thinking, let me just dwell,

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let my mind dwell on what's true,

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what's honorable, what's right, what's

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pure, what's lovely, what's excellent,

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what's praiseworthy.

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And anytime your mind would start going to something

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else, you're like, no, no, no, the word

1:47

of God says, let my mind dwell on

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these things. And

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I hope that was true of all of you that

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were here last week, that the word of God

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wasn't something you heard.

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And you thought, well, I'm going to apply

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that one day, but that this

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week you decided, no, I'm going to fix my

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eyes. I'm going to dwell on what's

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true and honorable and right and

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pure. How'd

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you do with that? I

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had an amazing week. I was, it

2:18

just was a joyful, like

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nothing really changed. You

2:22

know, I got a little bit of a funk a couple weeks

2:25

ago, where just you hear a lot of negative

2:27

and and you can just dwell on

2:30

it. And then it's like nothing's

2:32

really changed. In fact, things have gotten worse

2:34

in those areas, but

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I changed, like my joy changed,

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my focus changed, like nothing

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robbed me of this elation,

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this high that

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I have with Jesus. And

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it was because of the word of God. It's

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what we talked about a few weeks ago about

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being sober-minded, clear-minded

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for the sake of our prayers. And then it's dwelling

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on what's true and right and honorable.

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And this week, you know, as elders, we

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just felt like Hebrews 12.2 was

3:08

being highlighted, like let's fix

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our eyes on Jesus. Yeah,

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just our elder gathering, Rob just made

3:17

the comment, because I just want to hear about Jesus.

3:20

Like that's it. Can we just preach

3:23

about Him and how great He is?

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Because there's a lot of stuff going on in

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the world. And I don't mean to belittle

3:30

those things, but

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I also don't want to belittle God

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and what happens when we just fix our eyes

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on Him. Like sometimes we get in

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strategy mode, well here's the problem, so we

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got to fix that problem. So let's fixate

3:46

on the problem and let's fix our eyes

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on the problem until we fix the problem.

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And Scripture says, no, get

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your eyes fixed like

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blinders where you're just staring

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at Him. Fix your eyes

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on Jesus. You read those stories in the Old

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Testament where, you know, you've got

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this crazy war that's about

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to happen and God says, send

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the worshipers ahead. Just

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have them start worshiping me and see what

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happens. And

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armies are destroyed through

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people fixing their eyes on

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him. And so

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it's just this belief that he is

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in control. And

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I hope you've had a joyful week. And

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if you did not have a joyful

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week, I'm here to tell you it's your

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fault. That's really

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important for you to understand in this victimized

4:45

world. That if you did not

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have joy this week, it was all your fault.

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You chose not to think

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about the Word of God. You chose not to

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dwell on what is true and honorable, right

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and pure. It's not my fault. It wasn't

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because my sermon wasn't good enough. It

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wasn't, you know, the worship wasn't good enough.

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It's your fault. It's

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your issue. This is the way

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I was brought up. I didn't grow up

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in a victim culture. It was

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just, hey, you can choose.

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I want to do something right now. I want you to imagine.

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Everyone has an imagination. Try to imagine a cat.

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Okay, raise your hand if you can imagine a cat. Okay,

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keep your hands up. I want to make sure everyone, just

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in case there's someone here, that can't

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picture a cat in their head. Okay, now picture,

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keep your hands up. If you can imagine a hat

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on top of the cat. Okay,

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it could be anywhere on the cat. It's just a cat

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with a hat. You still got that in your

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head. Now picture that cat also holding

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a balloon somehow. Okay,

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we also got our hand. You're able to do that. Okay,

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good. Put your hand down. Okay, that's proof

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that you have control over your thoughts. You

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can think about it. whatever you want to think about. You

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want to think about a cat with a hat with a balloon?

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You can do it. If you

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want to dwell on what is true,

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honorable, right, pure, excellent, you can

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do it. You just choose to

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dwell on the other stuff. You

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choose. We have control. Like

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at any moment, you can worship

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him. Okay, no matter what's

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going on, that's the whole idea of him

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being your shepherd. He

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can set a table for you to have

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a meal with you in front of your enemies.

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You have enemies, you have all this

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stuff going on, but you have power

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over this. So if you don't

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have the joy of the Lord, it's

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your fault. You have chosen.

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You've just proven to me you

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have control over your mind. You

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can think whatever you want to think. You

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know, it's like last week when I was talking about

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that guy that got addicted to video games, it's

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like you could have taken it out

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and just ran it over with your car, but

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you chose to let your marriage deteriorate.

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You can't sit there and blame like,

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well, these video game makers make

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it so difficult. No,

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you have the power and you

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chose the video game over your marriage.

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That's it. That's all there is to it. God

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promises us, remember, that

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no temptation has

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overcome you except what is common to man.

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And God is faithful. He won't let you,

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God, the one we've

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been worshiping, he is so, Jesus is so

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faithful to us. He

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promised me, he promises me, Francis,

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I will never let you be tempted

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beyond what you can handle. So

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every time you're tempted, you

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have a way of escape. Anytime

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a negative thought comes to your mind,

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you have strength to kick it out and think

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about me and fix your eyes on

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me again. And I just, I cling

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to that. I go, that's the word of God. See,

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this is not about being an optimist.

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It's like, well, maybe you're just more naturally optimistic.

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No, it's I trust

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the word of God. And the word

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of God, Romans 8.28 is not just

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like a bumper sticker verse.

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It's I really believe that all

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things work together for the good,

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for those who love Him and are called according

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to His purpose. So no matter what

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happens in life, I trust

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the word of God. Well, you know

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what, that guy crashed into my car.

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I guess it was God's will. And something

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good is going to come out of this. You

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know, Justin was telling us last night, his

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car broke down in the middle of the freeway. I

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mean, just stopped. And,

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you know, but then he got a great talk with a tow

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truck driver. It just all

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works out somehow. Everything's

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got a reason. There's a reason why

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you're here today. There's a reason

9:03

why you're going to listen to this particular

9:05

message. It works all out for the

9:08

good, for those who love Him. It's

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about trusting that. So

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it's not about being optimistic. It's

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about trusting what His word says.

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And it's obeying His commands. When

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He says, rejoice in the Lord always.

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It's command. So

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you trust His promises

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and you obey His commands. Trust

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and obey. It's an old hymn we

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used to sing, trust and obey. There's

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no other way to be happy

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in Jesus than to trust and obey. You

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just trust, you just go, you know what, everything's

9:46

going to work out in the end. And

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it's all for my good somehow. God's going

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to use this to sanctify me.

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So it's a good thing. So I'm going to rejoice

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in the Lord because He tells me to do that always.

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He tells me I never. have to worry.

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I really believe that. He

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says, do not be anxious about anything.

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I see that command as a command. I go,

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he doesn't ever want me to worry.

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These are things I just,

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I train my mind. And

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I don't blame, I just go, it's my choice.

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I can choose to rejoice

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right now. I can choose to

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trust his word that everything's going to work together

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for my good. I can dwell

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on what is true and honorable

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and right and pure and excellent.

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And the enemy is going to keep trying

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to break this

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rejoicing spirit. And

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he's trying to break the worship,

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break the praise. And

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so when we get together, we got

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to keep reminding one another, it's

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good to praise God right now. He is

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always worthy of our praise. Let's

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just keep fixing our eyes on

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Jesus. Do

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you believe that there's a God in

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heaven on his throne right

11:15

now? And

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he actually has control of everything.

11:20

Do you

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believe that? That he's

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not worried right now on his throne.

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It's

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no anxiety in him. He's

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in perfect peace. Like,

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do you believe God worries about anything?

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No, because he's in control. We

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worry because we don't have control. There

11:46

are things I can't control, so you worry about

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it. You're not supposed to. You just

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go, well, God is in control. He's not

11:53

worried. He's

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in perfect peace. And that's why the Bible says

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the peace that God has can actually

11:59

be done. be yours. Like

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I can be just as peaceful

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as God. That's

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a crazy thought that

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I don't have to worry I can have

12:12

the peace of God. Do

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you believe he's present with us? Okay

12:23

I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna do something. Lisa can you

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come up here? My

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wife Lisa, January

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will be 30 years. I

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imagine

12:37

that moment and I go you know

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what

12:52

if I ask Lisa come up here, I bet

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you she'll come up here and just hug me.

12:57

Nice, nice cuddling

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with my wife.

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Now do I have the same faith

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in the presence of Jesus?

13:08

That

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if I go Jesus come

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here like just just

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be with me just be one

13:21

with me just commune

13:23

with me. Like I just

13:26

you you said like this is this

13:28

is why you went to the cross so that

13:30

we could be there. Is it just as

13:32

real to you as that was?

13:35

I know I can say

13:37

Lisa come up here come be

13:39

with me and there's there's a real person

13:43

that's gonna come on the stage and

13:45

a real person who's gonna hold me and do

13:48

I believe that about God Almighty

13:50

that he is a real person

13:54

and his promises I

13:56

do believe like what Justin was saying that the

13:58

joy sent me for that at

14:01

least a portion of that is

14:03

his desire to commune with

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us.

14:07

That he wants that. So

14:09

when I come up and I take the bread

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and the cup and I go, God, I

14:14

just want to commune with you in every

14:16

way possible when Justin is praying,

14:19

going, God, we want everything we can of you.

14:21

Do you believe that

14:23

the reality of a person who's

14:27

sitting on his throne, all powerful,

14:29

but he's also omnipresent,

14:32

he's somehow in this room with

14:34

us, that he's a literal

14:37

person who comes and looks

14:39

at me, his creation, and goes, oh,

14:42

this is my inheritance. That

14:45

he actually wants to be one with

14:47

you. And he says, look, abide in me and I

14:50

will abide in you. If

14:53

you abide in me and my words

14:55

abide in you, then ask whatever

14:57

you wish will be given to you. Like, do

14:59

you believe in this God who

15:02

wants to abide with you

15:04

just as much as

15:07

when I asked Lisa to come up here? Do

15:10

you believe God is so real? And

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he answers your prayer and

15:16

you say, God, come near. Want

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to read something

15:27

that he said in his

15:29

word, Hebrews 12

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verses one and two. Can we just stand

15:34

as I read these words and

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can you just clear your mind

15:39

of everything else? We

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have power over our minds. Clear

15:45

your mind of everything else. We're about

15:47

to hear from the very words of God.

15:52

Therefore, since

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we are surrounded

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by so great a class of

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people, of witnesses. Let

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us also lay aside every

16:05

weight and sin which clings

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so closely and let us run

16:09

with endurance the race that is set

16:12

before us. Looking

16:14

to Jesus, the founder

16:16

and perfecter of our faith, who

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for the joy that was set before

16:21

him, endured the cross,

16:24

despising the shame

16:27

and is seated at the right hand

16:29

of the throne of God.

16:34

God, may you bless your word

16:36

this morning. May you cause

16:38

us to take root in our hearts

16:41

in Jesus name. Amen.

16:44

You may be seated. So

16:48

we are surrounded, he goes, therefore

16:50

since we are surrounded by such a great

16:53

cloud of witnesses, therefore,

16:56

this is Hebrews 12 and

16:58

Hebrews 11. You know, you guys know

17:01

that's that chapter where he just shows

17:03

all the people through history that

17:05

have lived by faith,

17:07

believed in God, made it to the

17:10

end and he says since you have so

17:12

many examples, because

17:19

we have so many examples of those

17:21

who made it, the point is you can

17:23

do it too. Now here's the

17:26

problem in the church. Sometimes

17:29

we make heroes of

17:31

these people in the Bible, almost

17:34

like superheroes. You

17:37

know, it's like, well I can't do that. I'm not Spider-Man.

17:40

I can't do that. I'm not Superman. I

17:42

can't do that. I'm not Moses. I

17:45

can't do that. I'm not Abraham.

17:48

I'm not Mary. And

17:51

we look at these people, that

17:53

was Elijah. Well that

17:55

was Paul. That

17:58

was Deborah.

18:00

Whoever it is, you kind

18:03

of put them out there,

18:06

like untouchable.

18:08

But that was not the point of Romans 11

18:11

for you to go, well, yeah, that was Noah.

18:14

I mean, Noah, he's just good with boats.

18:16

You know, like, no, he's just

18:18

a guy. You know, Moses,

18:21

oh, he was just a good leader? No, he's

18:23

the one that wanted to bring Aaron because he couldn't

18:26

talk. And that was a stupid

18:28

idea. Look where Aaron took him. That's

18:31

the guy that led him into making the golden calf.

18:34

So he's a terrible leader, terrible

18:36

speaker. The point of

18:38

it was he believed. These

18:41

were not, we kind of do the opposite

18:43

of what scripture was meant for.

18:46

Well,

18:46

that was Abraham, Father Abraham.

18:49

He had many sons. You know, you just go on

18:51

and on like, oh, I could never be

18:53

him. I could never be him. But

18:55

the point of Hebrews 11 was

18:57

these were normal people. Samson

19:00

was normal.

19:02

He was terrible.

19:06

But the end was like that faith. It

19:08

was just, that's the point. These

19:11

witnesses are not for us

19:13

to go, I could never be like

19:15

him. No, it's because of

19:17

these witnesses that actually

19:20

made it, we're supposed to look and go, wow, I

19:22

have no excuse. It's

19:24

crazy that we would use them as excuses

19:26

when the point is, no, you have no excuse. Look

19:29

at this great cloud of witnesses. Look at

19:31

all these people that made it. You got this.

19:34

Therefore, since we have such a great cloud

19:36

of witnesses, you

19:41

know, it's interesting too.

19:44

We're talking about 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10

19:47

kind of shows you all these failures

19:49

too. And the point is,

19:52

the point of the failures is for you to go, oh,

19:54

I don't want to become like

19:57

them. The point of Hebrews 11 is...

20:00

Oh, I do want to be like them. But

20:02

again, it's like this human

20:05

nature thing where we, those who

20:07

fail, sometimes when someone in ministry fails,

20:10

we almost use it as an excuse again, like,

20:13

well, if he didn't make it,

20:14

how am I going to make it?

20:16

If she didn't make it, how am I ever going

20:18

to walk with Jesus? How am

20:20

I ever going to live a faithful life? Guys,

20:23

do you understand what the scriptures are doing? They're

20:26

just pointing out, here's the guys that made

20:28

it. Here's the ones that did it. You

20:30

want to be like them, you don't want to

20:32

be like them. And

20:36

so there could come a

20:38

day where I fail you

20:40

miserably, Rob fails you miserably,

20:42

Sarah fails you miserably, Justin,

20:45

Rachel, Lisa, whatever. We

20:47

all fail. It

20:49

could happen. But don't

20:52

take it as an excuse. Well, Francis

20:54

didn't even make it. You just

20:56

go, wow, I don't want to be like Francis. He

20:58

blew it.

20:59

He blew it.

21:01

That's what you look at. First Corinthians 10. Well,

21:03

I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I

21:06

don't want to do that. Hebrews 11. Ooh,

21:08

I want to be like that. Oh, I want to have faith.

21:12

It's a choice. It's for us.

21:15

And so because we're surrounded by such a great

21:17

cloud of witnesses, he goes, let's

21:20

lay, let us, okay, let

21:22

us lay aside every weight

21:25

and sin which so, which clings

21:27

so close. Closely and let us run

21:30

with endurance the race that is set before

21:33

us. Okay. Don't

21:35

use all these people as excuses.

21:38

Use them as examples of, oh, I want,

21:41

I want to be like them. I don't want to be like

21:43

them. These people made it. Let

21:45

them be my example. These people failed.

21:49

That's a negative example. I don't want to do that.

21:51

That's all it's for. And then

21:54

let us lay

21:56

aside. Okay. This

21:58

has been a running theme. worry about

22:01

yourself. Okay, this

22:04

is me. I

22:07

have a choice. I'm not going to

22:09

blame it on the people who failed and

22:12

I'm not going to make superheroes of the people

22:14

who made it. I

22:16

just have to lay aside every

22:19

weight and sin which

22:23

clings so closely. I

22:29

think it's significant in this

22:31

verse that he says, let us also

22:35

lay aside every

22:37

weight and sin. Like

22:42

we know what sin

22:45

is. We talk about sin.

22:47

Scripture talks about sin. So

22:50

you, we got to lay that aside. You

22:53

know, this is talking about the sin that

22:55

clings so closely.

22:59

I mean the idea here is of a runner

23:01

back then I not to be too graphic,

23:03

but they would run naked. That

23:06

was the idea in this race was

23:09

just like man. I don't want these

23:11

because you know, it's not like they had speedos.

23:13

They just had these cloths that were covering

23:16

you try to run in the idea was

23:18

your tripping and it's entangling you just

23:20

get rid of that and run. That's the

23:22

way we need to run our lives. That's what we

23:24

got to live is just get rid of

23:26

the things that will entangle you

23:29

like sin and that clings so

23:31

closely. He goes, but he also

23:33

says, lay aside every weight.

23:37

It's separate from sin here. The

23:40

weights and the sin a lot of times

23:42

there's things in our lives that

23:45

we hold on to and in our mind

23:47

we go, well, it's not sin. Well,

23:52

it's not thin to swim

23:55

with a bowling ball. It's

23:59

not.

23:59

Sin,

24:00

it's just dumb. You know,

24:03

and in the same way, there are things

24:05

in our lives. When God has marked

24:07

out a race, okay, think about

24:10

this. God has given some, he goes,

24:12

let us run with endurance.

24:14

The race that is set before us.

24:19

Okay, worry about yourself.

24:22

What is the race that is set

24:25

out for you?

24:28

You can't go, well, it's easy. It's

24:30

easy for Jarell, you know, he's got a great

24:32

wife. Da, da, da, da, da. Well, that

24:34

was his race. You've

24:38

got a race. Like there's

24:40

something Jarell, you're supposed to do that

24:44

I'm not called to do. And

24:47

I can't compare. I

24:49

just go, okay, there's a race that's set out before

24:52

me and I've got to run it

24:54

with endurance. I can't worry

24:56

about the people who failed and

24:59

make an excuse out of that. I can't

25:01

worry about the superhero ones

25:04

and try to make them sound like they're better than me.

25:06

At the end of the day, I can choose

25:09

to lay aside the weights. You

25:12

know, that's where I have to go, gosh, Lord, is

25:15

there's anything I have to have?

25:18

Because that's a weight. I could say, you know, if I

25:21

have to have a nice car or,

25:23

you know, a car within five years, you

25:25

know, not older than five years, that's

25:27

a weight. I don't have to have that. Because

25:30

then I always got to make enough money to have that

25:33

kind of car. You just got to get to a point

25:35

where it's like, God, I'll live off of anything.

25:37

I'll wear anything, I'll lead anything.

25:40

I just want to follow you. I don't want

25:42

anything to encumber me. I don't want to hold onto

25:44

this bowling ball as I swim. It's

25:47

not wrong. It's not like a hardcore

25:50

sin. It's just like, God, I'm good, I'm

25:52

good. You're enough

25:55

for me. I'm content with this. I'm not going to covet

25:57

all of these things. See, once

25:59

there's things, things in your life where you go, I have

26:01

to have this. It

26:05

becomes a weight. And

26:07

you can always justify, go, well, it's not a sin.

26:10

Yeah. But he says, lay aside every

26:13

weight and the sin that's so

26:15

easily entangles so that

26:17

we can run this race that

26:20

he set before us. Okay.

26:24

Don't make excuses. Well, this guy

26:26

is not running his race very fast. She's

26:28

hardly even running. He

26:31

laid a race for you

26:33

and run with endurance. You've

26:35

got the examples of those who made it and

26:37

those who didn't now. So

26:40

you run looking

26:45

to Jesus or

26:47

some of your Bible say fitness way. I memorize

26:49

it. Fixing your eyes on Jesus,

26:52

the author and perfecter of our faith.

26:55

I love this. I

26:58

mean, it's like having blinders on,

27:00

you know, those horses that have the blinders where

27:03

they can just look at, you know, that finish line or whatever

27:05

they're supposed to look at, they're not

27:07

wandering out, just fix your eyes. Just

27:11

look at Jesus, stare at him. The

27:17

author and perfecter

27:21

of our faith. I

27:25

want us to do that right now. Just

27:30

know that Jesus is here.

27:33

Just like Lisa's here.

27:36

Can I, I can have her come to me. Jesus

27:42

is here. Thank

27:45

him for being the author

27:49

of your faith. Think

27:53

back to when you started believing.

28:00

Jesus set that up for you. Acts 17

28:05

says that he decided

28:09

when you would be born, where you

28:11

were going to be born, so that you would

28:14

find your way towards him and find

28:16

him. So who set

28:18

that up? It's Jesus.

28:23

The scripture says he chose us

28:26

in him before the foundation

28:28

of the world to be holy

28:30

and blameless before him. So don't give

28:32

credit to your youth pastor, your

28:34

parents. One

28:37

person was the author of your faith. One

28:41

person decided, I want

28:44

him, I want her. I'm

28:47

going to pour my grace on him. I'm

28:50

going to let her know how much I love

28:52

her. He is the author. Thank

28:54

him. Thank

28:57

him. He used other people, but

29:00

it was him. Why are you sitting

29:02

in this room still worshipping him at this age?

29:06

Because he started something in you. Why

29:08

are you still here? Because he's

29:11

the perfecter of your faith, too. That

29:14

he who began a good work is

29:16

faithful to complete it. Thank

29:20

him for being the perfecter. Thank

29:27

him that he's the one now to him who

29:30

is able to keep you from stumbling

29:34

and to make you stand in his presence,

29:38

in the presence of his glory, blameless

29:41

with great joy. He's

29:46

the perfecter. This

29:57

is why we can't blame anyone, We

30:00

can't give credit to anyone. He

30:03

started it. He's going to finish it. We

30:07

can't blame anyone if we're not close

30:09

to God. God's

30:12

the one that's going to perfect your faith. That

30:14

doesn't mean that the church body doesn't have a role

30:17

in that. We all have gifts to equip

30:19

one another. But at the end

30:21

of the day, I love that old A.W. Tozer

30:24

quote. Because every man is as

30:27

close to God as he wants to be. Why

30:32

are you not close to God right now? Because

30:36

you don't want to be. You

30:38

could choose to focus on him. You

30:41

just choose not to. Don't blame it on

30:43

me. Don't blame it on your pastor.

30:46

Don't blame it on your parents. I'm

30:48

not saying that we can't do things that hurt

30:51

you and discourage you from

30:53

your faith. That's absolutely true. But

30:55

at the end of the day, God is the author

30:58

of your faith. He started

31:00

this and he'll finish it. So

31:02

you guys can all let me down. I can let

31:04

you down. But at the end of the

31:06

day,

31:09

I know who I believe.

31:13

And he started something in me. It's

31:16

in me. I

31:20

remember when we had this men's

31:23

home in San Francisco for people

31:25

coming off addiction or people

31:27

coming out of prison. That's

31:31

where Rob started out, right when he got out of

31:33

prison. That's how we got to know each

31:35

other. But I remember one of our leaders looking

31:37

at this guy who was an addict. And

31:40

he says, you know, the problem right now

31:43

is I want your sobriety

31:45

more than you want your own sobriety.

31:48

And when that happens, it never works. And

31:52

sometimes as a leader, it's like

31:55

we can want you to have intimacy

31:58

with God more than you want to have intimacy with God. Intimacy

32:00

with God and that doesn't work There's

32:03

got to be something in you That

32:06

wants this that desires it that can't

32:09

blame it on anyone else It's like no

32:11

God started something in

32:13

me and I'm rude and grounded

32:15

in his love like I want this I

32:18

want it's not oh man

32:20

Justin and lead communion real well I

32:24

don't know. What are you even talking about? Didn't did

32:26

you come in here? Just desiring

32:28

the communion desiring

32:31

that He's

32:34

the author He's

32:36

the perfecter and so

32:38

when other people fail you that's

32:40

okay Just look at that as an example

32:43

of what you don't want to be And

32:45

go God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

32:48

you that you're the author Thank you that

32:50

you're the perfecter who

32:52

for the joy that was

32:54

set before him endured

32:57

the cross so beautiful

33:03

Just fix your eyes on Jesus

33:05

and Tell him

33:07

God that is amazing that

33:09

for the joy set before

33:12

you you endured the cross

33:16

Like why did Jesus go to the cross? There

33:21

was something he desired and part of that

33:23

again, like we want to be careful The Word

33:25

of God doesn't say it spell it out specifically

33:28

but in other passages it

33:31

just made it so clear that he's so

33:34

loved and that we are his inheritance

33:37

the riches of his glorious inheritance

33:40

that Somehow he sees us

33:43

as his glorious inheritance and

33:45

there was a joy in that just like

33:47

when he's praying to the Father these these Disciples

33:50

you gave me I want them to be where

33:52

I am. I want to be with them

33:54

forever There is something

33:57

in Jesus eagerly wanting to be

33:59

with them going

33:59

I can't go but I'm gonna come and I'm gonna

34:02

take you to where I'm at and

34:04

I'm preparing a place for you We're

34:07

gonna be together Okay,

34:08

so have joy in this it's coming

34:11

and he's saying like that that joy that

34:13

was set before him Enabled

34:16

him to endure like we're just to look

34:18

at Jesus go. Wow, he made it through

34:20

and he hated he despised

34:24

the shame of the cross you

34:27

gotta understand Despising

34:29

the shame

34:32

So

34:36

Jesse either Jesse both Jesse's

34:38

if I came up and I just spit

34:41

in each of your faces How

34:44

would you like that? No,

34:47

it's not a whole lot you'd have to think

34:49

about that cat again, okay, okay cat

34:51

hat balloon You know or

34:54

you'll get angry like it's just it's

34:56

just the worst it's never happened to me

34:58

yet except sometimes Some

35:00

people just talk and they spit when they talk but

35:03

other than that I've never been spit in

35:05

my face. I can just Imagine

35:08

that's

35:08

not great. I

35:10

would hate it

35:13

And and you got to understand

35:15

sometimes we look at Jesus

35:18

Like well, it was different for him because

35:21

he's the son of God No,

35:24

John explains he's the word and he

35:26

became flesh and He

35:29

emptied himself Philippians 2

35:32

says He took

35:34

the form of a baby. He actually had

35:36

to grow the Bible even describes

35:39

it. He grew in stature He grew

35:41

in wisdom. He grew in his understanding.

35:44

He had to learn You know,

35:46

sometimes when we think of Jesus, we almost

35:48

like oh, he probably didn't have to go to school He

35:50

just came out of Mary's wombs like equals

35:53

MC squared, you know, it's just no

35:56

he grew he grew he grew he was fully

35:59

human

36:00

And so that means don't

36:04

think of the cross differently

36:08

than if you had to go to the cross. Don't

36:12

think that if someone took

36:14

a whip to your back it

36:17

would hurt you and when you think

36:19

of Jesus it was a little bit

36:21

different because

36:23

he's the Son of God.

36:26

No, he felt it all.

36:29

He felt it all like

36:31

you would feel it all and he despised

36:34

the shame of it. The

36:37

shame of becoming

36:39

a curse. So

36:45

it's not just the pain but

36:48

in Galatians 3

36:55

Verse 13 says Christ redeemed

36:58

us from the curse of

37:00

the law by becoming

37:02

a curse for us. For

37:04

it is written, cursed is

37:07

everyone who is hanged on a tree.

37:09

He redeemed

37:13

us by becoming a curse. That's

37:16

what Jesus did and he despised

37:19

that. That's

37:22

why many theologians believe

37:24

that when he cries

37:26

out on the cross, my God, my God,

37:28

why have you forsaken me? Most

37:32

through his tree of belief that at that moment

37:35

he truly was, became

37:37

the curse, took on our sin to where

37:40

the God the Father even had to turn

37:42

away and it's like, ah,

37:45

I'm just filled with

37:47

all the sins of the world

37:50

and I'm just hanging on this tree

37:52

as a curse for the world. The very

37:55

people that I came to save are mocking

37:57

me, spitting on me. They just

37:59

never knew.

37:59

Look, you know my my hands

38:02

are this piece of wood after beating

38:04

the heck out of me so much

38:06

pain And now my god my god,

38:09

why are you turning away from me? And

38:14

he says fix your eyes on that Savior

38:16

of yours who endured

38:18

the cross for the joy set before him Fix

38:22

your eyes that's our God who

38:26

loves us so much That's

38:29

your God. That's why we rejoice in

38:31

him That's why

38:33

we fix our eyes because

38:37

Who else would you want to fix your eyes on? Who

38:43

else do we want to focus

38:46

on in fact, let's just

38:48

worship him right now Okay,

38:52

he's in this room He's

38:55

here with us He

38:57

endured the cross for you He

39:00

despised the shame of the

39:03

cross He was he was

39:05

in that garden like before

39:07

he even went to the cross He's sweating

39:10

drops of blood because he knew what

39:12

was coming And

39:16

he said God is there any other

39:18

way But

39:21

he endured it for us and he's here right

39:23

now The

39:26

author and perfecter of our faith Jesus

39:29

is amazing. He is always worth praising

39:35

Stare at him right now Ask

39:40

him to come to you he's real He's

39:44

real give us eyes God and

39:46

we just want to worship and stare at you right

39:48

now Jesus Thank you for listening to the crazy love podcast join us next time for a new

39:54

episode but until then for more resources sources

40:00

from Crazy Love Ministries, or to support

40:02

the work of Crazy Love, please visit our

40:04

website at crazylove.org.